


carnivale

by imaglowstick



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Exactly What It Says on the Tin, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Love Confessions, kind of a slow burn?, look im just gay and stressed alright and this is what came of that, please enjoy, second fic on this platform and of course it's a spinel self insert, things get going it just takes a chapter ghfjhkjhk, this took me months to write because im lazy, well more like prospective lovers but you know what i mean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2021-04-04
Packaged: 2021-04-25 09:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22288099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaglowstick/pseuds/imaglowstick
Summary: There's a cute pink gem girl working at Funland, and you are really, really into her. You're so into her, in fact, that you decide to win her a prize from the ring toss booth she's running.
Relationships: Spinel (Steven Universe) & Reader, Spinel (Steven Universe)/Reader
Comments: 15
Kudos: 76





	1. ring toss

You’d always been fantastic at ring tosses. You had naturally good hand-eye coordination, most likely thanks to the four years of baseball you played in your youth, and ring toss games were basically just cornhole but worse- which was, coincidentally, another game you were a master of. Never had there been a ring toss game you couldn’t beat on the first try, and the pile of cheap county fair prizes in your closet was proof of your ability. Your concentration was unbreakable; your track record, unbeatable. You weren’t good at most things, but ring tosses? You had mastered the art of them, and you were confident there wasn’t much that could possibly throw off your groove.

You weren’t expecting a cute girl, though.

She was new. She was definitely new. She had to be- you would’ve seen her before. It’s not like you were at Beach City Funland enough to have memorized its employees and carnival barkers, but you knew that if you’d seen her before, you would have remembered her. She wasn’t someone your eyes could’ve simply swept over while surveying the brightly colored tents and shiny metal rollercoaster frames. She was pink. Not just her hair, but all of her, her skin, her eyes. She wore the classic Funland uniform, but it looked like she’d put it on overtop her other clothes, which were jester-esc and, big surprise, also pink. 

Humans, normally, did not come in pink, so she had to be one of the Gems. You’d heard of the Gems, of course- one couldn’t live in Beach City without doing so, even if one neglected leaving one’s apartment and conversing with the locals as much as you did- and you’d even seen them working jobs around the city. You knew through word of mouth that there had been only three for a while, living in a gigantic temple next to the ocean with their- son? Nephew? You weren’t sure, but they had to be family of some kind, based on the way they all acted around each other. You’d met the kid before, when you were getting breakfast at the Big Donut one early summer morning. You were certain you’d never forget his name: Steven Universe. It was one of the coolest names you’d ever heard. He was a pretty nice guy, too. Seemed mature for his age. You’d been hoping to see him again, but hadn’t run into him since. 

There seemed to have been an accumulation of gems in the area recently. You’d only first moved to the city that past summer, but even in that short amount of time you’d noticed more and more of them appearing. Of course there were the three from the temple by the seaside who’d been in Beach City for decades (at least, you assumed it was decades. You weren’t entirely sure how gem aging worked), but you’d gleaned from overhearing some of your neighbors’ conversations that over the past few years the community had apparently grown exponentially. It was incredible, honestly. The “mini-Homeworld” as they called it, with its swirling architecture that invoked images of galaxies far, far away, was beautiful. You’d stopped by multiple times to sketch some of the buildings, and to people-watch. 

Gem-watch? 

Just watch. 

You did a lot of that. You felt a little creepy, but really you were just more comfortable sitting on the sidelines, listening to the indistinguishable babble of everyday chatter and observing others going about their daily lives. That’s just where you felt more at home.

So the girl was a gem, a pink gem, and she was also adorable. 

Her eyes were huge and doe-like, and her irises appeared to be rings of different shades of pink (of course), with flecks of yellow interspersed within the hues. Her face was heart-shaped, but soft-looking; her expressions squashed and stretched her cheeks in a cartoonish fashion. Her hands were small and slender, covered constantly by Looney Toon-esc gloves, and her hair was messy and bounced adorably in high twin pigtails. She appeared to be largely introverted on the outside. You’d seen her light up when talking to certain people, but it was a rare sight. She wasn’t unfriendly, but she seemed… Uncomfortable, maybe, with social interaction. You understood that-  _ shit _ , did you understand  _ that-  _ but still you wondered why, then, of all the job offers in the city she could’ve taken, she decided to work at an amusement park, one of the most socially-charged environments ever. You knew  _ you  _ could never work at Funland. As enjoyable as the park was, it exhausted you to be there for more than two hours. 

But regardless, here you were, in line at the Funland ticket booth, for the fourth time this week, because the new pink gem working said booth was adorable.

Like most ticket transactions, minimal speaking was required. You mumbled out your request for one single-day pass, handed over the three dollar fee, and then waited for Cute Pink Gem Girl to hold up her end of the exchange. She hadn’t said much, but after you gave her the money and she’d finished putting it in the register, she looked up, fully seeing you for the first time, and something in her eyes clicked.

“Oh, yer back today too.”

You jolted. Holy shit, she actually remembered you? You hadn’t anticipated that. You knew you’d been going to Funland consistently for multiple days now, but like an absolute dumbass, it hadn’t registered that she probably had enough object permanence to realize that you were the same person who had been buying a one-day ticket to the theme park almost every day for the past week. You scrambled to reply, your insides a messy mixture of flustered joy that she remembered you, and utter mortification that she remembered you.

“Uh- aha, yeah!” Your voice was more high pitched than usual. “Yeah, I am. Um. Nice to see you again?”

_ Oh, God, why did I say that like it was a question?  _ You mentally kicked yourself in the shins. The pink gem blinked at you and smiled a little awkwardly.

“Er- yea, you too? Here’s yer ticket. Enjoy the park.”

“Thanks! I will. Uh, again.”

She laughed a bit and you immediately ceased kicking yourself to mentally drop to your knees in holy reverence. Holy shit, you made her laugh. You were going to remember this day for the rest of your life. As she handed you the small slip of paper, the tips of your fingers brushed the fabric of her gloves, and something in the pit of your stomach shivered. 

And then you took your ticket and left the line.

Spinel. That was her name. And that was the longest conversation you’d ever held with her. 

_ Does she have a Brooklyn accent?  _ You replayed the dozen or so words she’d spoken to you in your head as you walked vaguely in the direction of the Tilt-a-Whirl.  _ Holy shit, I think she does. At least a slight one. That’s… Oh boy. _

After buying a few hot dogs from a nearby stand, you stood off to the side (to avoid being trampled by the other park attendees) and munched on your snack while surveying your entertainment options. At this point you’d ridden  _ Hyper Space _ six times, been on the Teacups five times, and gotten lost twice in the House of Mirrors, so that particular day you thought you’d branch out a bit and try some rides you’d never been on before. Despite loving thrill rides, you’d never ridden Funland’s titular coaster, the  _ Thunder Bird,  _ and a few people in your apartment building had said that you couldn’t experience Funland fully without going on it at least once. So, after finishing the last bite of your ‘dog, you made up your mind to give it a spin. 

Heh. A “spin”. You decided to give it a “spin”.

……………... Like Spinel-

You gave yourself a pinch through the fabric of your t-shirt.  _ Stop it. Stop being gay for like, two seconds. Just ride the dumb roller coaster and don’t think about Cute Pink Gem Girl. _

You rode the coaster. You thought a lot about Cute Pink Gem Girl. 

It was a fun ride. You liked the loop-de-loops, and the drop at the start, but after you’d gotten back to the main area of the park you realized you probably should have waited until the two hot dogs you’d eaten had settled more in your stomach before going on a roller coaster. Wincing at the nausea and cursing your past self for never seeming to think about consequences, you decided that maybe you should refrain from riding anything else until your insides calmed down, or at least until the risk of vomiting had been eliminated. More rides would probably just make your stomach ache worse, you’d already been to the House of Mirrors, and consuming more hot dogs was the least appetizing idea in the world at that moment, so the only thing that was left for you to do was carnival games. Which meant, of course, that you needed to find the ring toss. 

You’d assumed that finding the ring toss would be a relatively easy task. You were in an  _ amusement park _ ; ring tosses were par for the course, and you knew Funland had one- you’d seen it advertised on the map they were offering at the customer service tent. You  _ knew _ it was here.

…… Somewhere.

Funland wasn’t very big- people called it an “amusement park”, but it was more like a glorified carnival- and its layout was pretty simplistic. The rides were spread out evenly and the games, food stands, and ticket booths were scattered in between, primarily towards the front. It was straight-forward and strategically aimed towards making you want to spend more money on additional services instead of only going on the rides, and you would have been miffed about that, but everything there was pretty harmlessly priced and the hot dogs were good, even if they made you feel sick a few times. However it appeared that whomever had designed Beach City Funland hadn’t been a fan of ring tosses, and thus had hidden the stand away somewhere, because for the life of you, you couldn’t find the damn thing. You trekked from the  _ Thunder Bird _ all the way back to the entrance, realized your desired game wasn’t there, and doubled back to the Tilt-a-Whirl, side-stepping a jovial carnival barker (who was attempting to get you back into the House of Mirrors) as you did. From the Tilt-a-Whirl you walked to the food stands, weaved in between the wafting scent of hot dogs (your stomach had settled down at this point, but still. No thanks) and caramel popcorn and finally ended up at the very back of the park, a few meters away from the twinkling Ferris Wheel. The sky behind you was darkening slowly, the sun beginning to bleed into the clouds as it set. It was getting late. You couldn’t find the ring toss booth. 

“Where is that stupid thing? How hard could it possibly be to find a ring toss at a  _ carnival?”  _ you muttered, scuffing the tip of your sneaker dejectedly into the dirt. “Am I just blind? Or do I need to like, get a better view? Maybe I should get on the Ferris Wheel... No, that’s dumb. Fuck, I should’ve taken that map from the customer service booth. Ugh. Maybe…” Your heart sank. “Maybe I should just go home.” 

If you went home then, though, that would mean that you bought  _ another  _ ticket to this dumb park and would leave with minimal interaction with Cute Pink Gem Girl, zero cheap carnival prizes, and without reaffirming your position of ring toss master. Which would suck. You sighed, feeling extremely put-out. You’d really been hoping to end this day on a high note. Your eyes swept across the park stretched before you, gliding almost unseeingly over the people standing in line at the Ferris Wheel, the wayward streamers and churro wrappers littering the ground, the streetlights warmly illuminating the faces of your fellow carnival-goers, the brightly colored sign of the ring toss booth…

You stopped.

“Oh, what the fuck. Really?”

And there it was.

You did a tiny excited shimmy where you stood. There it was! Finally! Perhaps this day could be saved after all. Forget awkward conversations, forget gay panic, forget hot dog nausea and all the associated side effects- you’d finally found that stupid, stupid, stupidly wonderful ring toss booth, and you were going to go win yourself a cheap toy you didn’t need, assert your dominance, and then go the fuck home. Your confidence reaffirmed, you approached (well, more like skipped over to) your much-beloved haven, greeting the person running the booth with a bright smile. 

“Hello! How much?”

“Two bucks,” said the person, with a slight Brooklyn accent, turning around to reveal two messy magenta pigtails, cartoonishly rosy cheeks, and doe-like pink eyes that grew wide in recognition when your gazes met. 

_ Holy fuck. _

“Hey- it’s you again!” said the Cute Pink Gem Girl, Spinel.

“It’s me again,” you replied, weakly. Your bright smile wobbled with nerves at the grin she gave you.  _ She’s so cute. Have I ever seen her smile like this? Fuck, stop, stop staring. Be natural! Act natural!  _ “Aha- uh, two bucks, you said?” 

Spinel nodded. Her pigtails bounced adorably. You dug into your wallet for the money and shakily handed it to her, hoping to God she didn’t notice your fingers were trembling. As she reached over to grab you your rings, you fumbled for another topic of conversation. “I, uh, I thought you were working at the ticket stand.”

“Oh, yea, I was, but then Mister Smiley told me he wanted me to try manning one of the game booths- said it’d give me “experience”, or somethin’- so here I am.” She placed the three rings- each a bright dandelion yellow- on the counter before standing back to give you a clear shot. “I don’ really mind, though. It’s fun. I’m more of a games gal, anyhow. You can go ahead whenever yer ready.”

“Huh?” You blinked. She waved a thumb at the brightly colored cones behind her. “Oh! Oh, oh, yeah.” You laughed, a little awkwardly, picking up the rings she’d set down for you and readying yourself to toss the first one, aiming somewhere in the middle of the rows of brightly colored plastic. “Do I get, like, three chances?”

“Mm-hm. And if ya hit one but still have rings left, you can try again for a bigger prize.”

“Okay, cool.”

The conversation had sufficiently dwindled, and now, you were getting nervous. You were the master of ring tosses, yes, but you were absolutely  _ not _ the master of looking cool in front of insanely cute pink gem girls, and Spinel’s presence was making it extremely difficult to concentrate. You could see her out of the corner of your eye, watching you with what appeared to be gentle interest, and your stomach was curling into knots because of it.

_ Fuck. If I miss, I’m actually going to die. I’m just going to drop dead. I’m just going to actually fucking perish if I miss. _

You tossed the ring, and just as you felt it leaving your fingertips, Spinel spoke up.

“So, ya come here often?”

You missed.

Your eyes snapped up to hers, and the look on your face must’ve been perceived as less than desirable, because her cheeks flushed rosy and she looked away. “Uh- sorry, that was a weird way to word that. I, I was tryna… um.” Spinel appeared to regret every new word she said more intensely than the last. “Uh. I mean. Do you, like, live close by or somethin’?”

“Oh! No, no, you’re- you’re fine, um-”  _ Shit, she’s really, really cute when she blushes.  _ Your horrible first toss went pretty much entirely forgotten. “I do, actually! My apartment is like, five minutes away by bike, so I come here a lot. Just ‘cause I’m so close, and ‘cause I love amusement parks.”

_ And to see you, but you don’t need to know that,  _ you thought to yourself, reaching down to pick up the next ring. 

“What?” Spinel’s voice was light with feigned innocence and her smile was warm and cheeky. Her awkwardness over her previous comment had seemingly melted away. “Ya love amusement parks? I never woulda guessed!”

Surprised by her unexpected quip, you laughed, loud and bright in the quiet of the late afternoon. You shifted your weight in anticipation of throwing the second ring. “Hold on, wait, you’re funny? Why didn’t you tell me you were funny?”

Spinel tugged a bit at the hem of her uniform. Her warm, cheeky smile turned slightly sheepish. “I mean, this is the first time we’ve.. actually talked, so.. ya know.” 

“O-Oh. Right. Haha...”  _ Nice going, doofus. You fucked it up.  _ You gave yourself another mental kick in the shins. The conversation had been progressing so wonderfully, too.  _ Quick, how do I fix this? Ask her how she dyes her hair..? No, shit, she’s a gem. It’s natural. Well, as natural as hair can be on a non-organic being. Should I ask her how she started working here? I have been wondering about that. There aren’t any other gems that work here, at least that I know of. I wonder if somebody helped her get the job. _

Before you could open your mouth to ask, though, Spinel spoke first. 

“What’s yer name, by the way?”

Caught off guard, you straightened up from your ring-tossing stance and met her eyes. “My name? Oh!”  _ Oh my god, I’m an idiot. I never introduced myself. Duh.  _ “Right, I never told you. Aha! Whoops. Um, I’m (Y/N).”

“(Y/N).” She echoed it softly, as though trying it out on her tongue. You felt your face grow warm at her gentle, almost reverent tone. She blinked, in the way that one did when one was coming out of deep thought, and then looked straight at you, smiling crookedly and sticking out her hand. “The name’s Spinel. Nice to finally meet ya, (Y/N).”

“Same to you, Spinel,” you replied, feeling completely in love and knowing that you would never forget this day for the rest of your life. Her hand was delicate and warm and the second skin-to-glove contact was made, butterflies exploded in your stomach, swarmed through your ribcage, fluttered up your spine and came to a quivering rest at the top of your head. She gave your hand a firm shake, the motion of it making her thin arm wobble cartoonishly. Her crooked grin looked like the moon and you felt your soul melt inside your chest. 

“..... Ya gonna throw that ring?”

“Huh?” Your eyes jumped down to the ring you were still clutching. Your cheeks, which were already extremely pink, grew hotter still, and you immediately dropped Spinel’s hand, laughing nervously. “Oh! Shit, right. Let me just-”

You regained your ring-tossing stance, but as you turned away you caught Spinel’s face suddenly dropping. Not enough to really be noticeable, but her smile wavered just slightly the moment you let go of her hand, as if she missed the contact of your palm against her own. Now, you weren’t about to overanalyze  _ that… _

Oh, who were you kidding, you absolutely were, because what?

_ What? _

As you geared up to make your second shot, the cogs in your brain turned wildly. 

_ The fuck? The fuck?? What? Why! What?! What does  _ that _ mean?  _

You steadied yourself, narrowing your eyes a bit to lock onto where you were aiming, and pulled your arm back. 

_ Why did her face drop like that? It really looked like she frowned when I pulled away… Did she... did she want…  _

Twisting your wrist, you snapped your arm forward and released the ring. 

_ Did she want to keep holding my hand?  _

“Woah! Ya hit the middle row!” Spinel’s eyes widened and she pointed excitedly at the ring, which had landed perfectly in the very center of the rows of cones, spinning around said cone once before finally coming to a gentle stop. You blinked in surprise before an elated smile spread over your face.

“Holy shit! Holy fucking shit!” You whooped and clapped your hands in excitement. “I did it!”   
  
“Ya did it!” Spinel agreed gleefully, clapping alongside you. She reached over and grabbed the cone, turning it upside down to check its underside. Her eyes squinted charmingly as she scanned the number scribbled there. “30….. 3? 33!”

“33! Awesome! What does 33 mean?”

“It means ya get a prize!”

You could feel your grin turn goofy at her enthusiasm. “A prize?”

“Yea!” She gestured to a line of small plastic figurines hanging next to a row of multicolored cowboy hats. “Anythin’ from here to.. Here, I think,” she said, pointing to an absolutely hideous leopard print cowboy hat that your soul immediately decided you needed to own. “Take yer pick, pal.”

‘Pal’ was not a romantic nickname, but fuck if your heart didn’t skip eighteen beats and stutter in your chest at Spinel calling you that. You surveyed your options thoughtfully and clicked your tongue in contemplation, pretending as if you hadn’t already claimed that horrifically ugly cowboy hat as your one true love. You didn’t want to seem too eager. 

_ Too eager about my prize,  _ you clarified in your head.  _ Not too eager about anything else. _

You were a natural at ring tosses, but you’d never been too good at lying to yourself.

“Anything from there to there?” you repeated, pointing from the row of figurines Spinel had first indicated to your aforementioned cowboy-hat-Romeo. 

“Anythin’ from there to there. Or…” She wiggled her brow at you goofily and you bit back a giggle. “Ya could toss again, if ya wanna shot at a different prize. Personally, I’m partial to those lil’ guys.” She pointed above her head to the topmost row, where a line of velveteen alien plushies in a rainbow of colors hung, with wide black eyes and adorably tiny mouths curved into warm smiles, swaying gently in the early evening breeze. 

“You’ll need to score real well though if ya want one of ‘em- they’re a hot item. Been tryna get Smiley to give me one since I work here an’ all, but the man won’t budge. Eh, what can ya do?” She shrugged before turning herself back towards you, eyes twinkling, and flashing you a smile. “So? What’ll it be, (Y/N)?”

You looked at the hideous leopard print cowboy hat, then at the row of soft alien plushies, then back down at Spinel. She was still grinning that soul-meltingly crooked grin, and she seemed so much more at ease now. There was a warmth in her eyes that you’d never seen before. She leaned against the game booth, slumping slightly, relaxed and gentle and open. Her face was illuminated by the lowly lit park surrounding you, by the colorful fairy lights strung up around the ring toss booth, by the soft glow of the gently setting sun as it faded into the horizon and tinged the world around it with a peach-scented, cotton candy-tinted hue, and by just how much you were crazy into this Cute Pink Gem Girl, Spinel. You really, really liked her. You really didn’t want this conversation to be the closest you ever came to her.

You looked up at the alien plushies one more time, and thought to yourself, 

_ Well….. Here goes nothing. _

“I think I want to try again, actually.” 

“Oh?” Spinel’s seemingly non-existent eyebrows raised in interest at your response. “Oh, sure! Ya got one more ring, so.. Yea, go ahead. Give ‘er another go.”

You turned back towards the cones, picking up the final ring and fiddling nervously with it. Your heart was hammering. “Which, um, which ones do I need to hit to win one of those alien guys, again?”

“Ehh… somewhere between... 40 an’ 50. Ya were already pretty close with yer score o’ 33.”

_ Great,  _ you thought, already starting to sweat.  _ Here’s hoping I can do that again, but better. _

You really were naturally great at ring tosses, and you had been since you were a kid. Today just… had not been a perfect reflection of your talents. It wasn’t your fault, you were taken off guard, blindsided. You couldn’t have expected hot dog nausea or cute pink gem girls named Spinel. You weren’t emotionally prepared for that. You weren’t emotionally prepared for  _ her _ . But fuck, dude. You wanted to see if maybe she hadn’t been emotionally prepared for you, either. It was more than just wanting to leave an impression on her. You wanted to make sure she didn’t  _ have  _ to remember you, because the two of you were going to see each other again. 

“Alrighty, then.” Spinel shifted backwards, slouching against one of the booth poles and meeting your gaze through her eyelashes. There was something in her voice that wasn’t there a moment ago. It reminded you of the way she’d murmured your name when you’d first introduced yourself, but there was an edge to it you hadn’t heard before. Her words were melty and smooth; they twisted themselves into your stomach and got tangled in your intestines, filling your abdomen with a squirming sort of warmth that made you want to bolt. Her smile turned into something that sent heat rushing to your face. 

“Impress me, (Y/N),” she said.

“Holy shit,” you said. 

Spinel cocked her head to the side. “Wha’ was that?” 

“Uh-”  _ Oh god, I said that out loud. _ “Nothing. Nothing! I’m gonna-”  _ Jesus fuck. Focus! Focus on the task at hand! _ “I’m gonna throw the ring now.”

“Go ahead, pal. The floor’s all yours.” 

There was amusement in her voice.  _ Is she..… enjoying this...? Oh my god. Oh my god. _

You bit your tongue to avoid letting out any other involuntary expletives and focused your attention back on the cones. It was one thing when you were just being watched by your target of affection- that was nerve-wracking, sure, but now.. Now it wasn’t just your dignity on the line. You really wanted to win one of those alien plushies. You  _ really _ wanted to win one of those alien plushies. You really wanted to see Spinel again. You took a small, soft breath and readied yourself, praying to whatever god, goddess, or genderless deity that ruled over the art of the ring toss to steady your stance, guide your hand, and help your knees not buckle under the weight of your gay panic. 

And then you tossed the ring, and when Spinel walked over to check the bottom of the cone it landed on, literally nothing else in the world mattered except for the erratic beat of your heart, and the ring toss booth, and her.

“Well, would ya look at that.” 

“W-What?” You didn’t think you’d ever been so anxious before in your entire life. Your guts had twisted in on themselves; your hands had started shaking ages ago and still hadn’t stopped. It felt like you were having a panic attack in slow motion.

Spinel looked up at you and you swore your heartbeat stopped. Her smile was sunshine incarnate as she said,

“42.”

The number bounced in midair, as if caught in an evening breeze. You watched it dance around your head for half a moment before a laugh, tingly and internal, bubbled up from the pit of your stomach and forced its way out of your mouth. The laugh was half relieved and half deranged and uncomfortably loud in the quiet of the late afternoon, but fuck, you didn’t care. 42.  _ 42\.  _

You were never going to forget this moment.

“So….” Spinel was grinning at you. You never wanted her to stop grinning at you. “What color?”

“Pink,” you answered immediately. You didn’t even have to think about it. If your voice right now was a hue, it’d be the brightest, warmest yellow ever conceived.

She grinned even wider, turned with a flourish and reached up, her arm stretching unnaturally long, delicately pulling one of the pink alien plushies from its place strung up next to its siblings. 

“Swell choice,” she said, holding it out for you to take. Her eyes were sparkling, her voice was sparkling, the air around her was sparkling. You felt like you should be shielding your eyes. You took the plushie. 

And then there was a pause. 

Spinel swallowed. She looked like she wasn’t looking forward to what was going to happen now that she’d given you your prize. 

“Well…” Her voice wasn’t sparkling as much anymore. She shifted where she stood, a hand sneaking up seemingly subconsciously to pull at her oversized uniform. “Um. It’s pretty late. I’m sure ya’ve got.… stuff t’ do. Um..”

“Spinel.”

The hand that was pulling awkwardly at the hem of her shirt twitched in surprise. She blinked at you. “Er- yea, pal?”

You squeezed the pink alien plushie to your chest as if the action of it would help muffle the sound of your frantic, flustered heartbeat, taking in a breath that rattled and shook inside your ribcage. “Do you….. do you have a pen?”

She blinked at you again. “Uh. Sure? I think? Lemme- uh-”

Spinel reached underneath the counter and rummaged around for a bit before withdrawing her gloved hand, now clutching a blue ballpoint pen that she held out to you expectantly. You took it from her and felt your stomach shudder at the close proximity of your hands. With trembling fingers, you searched for the plushie’s tag and, once found, pressed it flat against the counter of the booth before scribbling your phone number down onto the polyester. Looking back up, you met Spinel’s gaze. It was full of an emotion you couldn’t pinpoint.

“Here,” you said. You held out the pink alien plushie.

Spinel’s eyes, still full of that unnamed feeling, widened, and she shook her head quickly. “Woah- wait a sec, pal, you won that fair n’ square! I can’t just- I can’t  _ take  _ it.”

“You can if it’s a gift.” Your hand shook slightly but stayed stubbornly outstretched. “I won it for you.”

“You- huh?” 

You leaned forward, placing your free hand on the booth counter and looking Spinel directly in the eyes. Your face felt as if it were aflame but you didn’t look away. 

“I won it for  _ you _ ,” you said again. 

Spinel went quiet. She looked back at you, not really responding at all to what you’d said, and for a terrifying moment you thought you’d misread the atmosphere and had made the worst gay mistake of your life- but then that same adorable rosy blush began to creep ever so gradually up her neck and back into her cheeks. Slowly, she reached out and gently took the plushie from your fingertips, as though scared any sudden movement would frighten you away. She opened her mouth to say something, but your nervousness spoke before she could. 

“You should check the tag. Um. Because it- there’s something on there, for you. That’s- that’s what I was, um, writing. That’s why I needed the, uh.. The pen.”

Spinel turned the plush around in her hands, raising it up closer to her face to better decipher the chicken scratch you’d left on the tag. Her eyes traced over the numbers you’d written, seemingly scanning it multiple times before finally growing large with realization. The soft blush on her cheeks quickly changed hues; from a dusty rose pink to a deep magenta.

“This is- that’s yer phone number.”

The emotion in her voice wasn’t  _ negative,  _ exactly, but it wavered in a way that sent your anxiety into overdrive. You quickly took your hands off the counter and stepped back slightly, effectively removing yourself from Spinel’s personal bubble. 

“Uh- yeah! Yeah, it is, um- I, uh, I really like- I mean I think you’re really, like, cool? I think you’re really cool and I- I wanna keep in touch. And um, see you again. If you’re- only if you’re, you know, okay with that.”

Spinel was quiet again, but only for a single moment before her gaze quickly jumped up from staring at your phone number scrawled hastily onto the plush’s tag to looking you square in the face. She was smiling a smile you hadn’t seen on her before. It was small, wobbly. It looked shy.

“Yea. Shucks, um... Yea,” said the Cute Pink Gem Girl, Spinel, holding the small alien plushie you’d won her in flustered, shaking hands. “I’m okay with that.”

You walked back to the park entrance in a daze. The sun was fully obscured by the horizon, replaced by the slowly rising moon, and Funland was almost entirely empty at this point. The majority of the rides were shut down for the night and the twinkly fairy lights that decorated the stalls and booths had been turned off, leaving only the streetlights that lined the main walkway to illuminate the quickly darkening park. It was Wonderland-esc. It matched how you felt perfectly. In your mind, you replayed Spinel’s parting words to you over, and over, and over, as if they were your new favorite song.

_ “See ya around, (Y/N).” She gave you a warm smile and a wink that sent your heart rocketing up into space. She was still holding the pink alien plushie. “And come back soon, y’hear?” _

You were in such a daze, in fact, that you didn’t realize until you were halfway across the parking lot, mere feet from where you’d left your bicycle, that you were still clutching the blue ballpoint pen Spinel had lent you. But that didn’t really matter. 

That just meant you had an excuse to come back again tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a dumb self insert thing that involves the mc being a disaster gay and eventually winning spinel a toy at a carnival and that’s pretty much it but i hope you enjoyed it regardless of its dumbness :>


	2. ferris wheel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go back to Funland in order to see the cute pink gem girl again. And to give her back the pen you'd borrowed, but we all know that's just an excuse.

The next day, you went back to Funland to return the blue ballpoint pen you’d borrowed, and Spinel wasn’t there. 

You walked up to the ticket booth– the hand you held the aforementioned pen in shaking slightly with anticipation– expecting to be greeted by messy magenta pigtails, wide pink eyes, and the crescent-moon grin you hadn’t been able to get out of your head for the past twelve hours, but instead you were greeted by Mr. Smiley, who seemed very excited that you’d returned to spend yet even more money at his subpar theme park. You weren’t as excited as he was– you’d been coming to Funland every day for almost a week, after all– but you squashed your disappointment and hurriedly pushed three crumpled dollar bills into his hand before high-tailing it towards the Tilt-a-Whirl. You weaved through the food carts, ignoring how your stomach grumbled at the smell of cotton candy and churros, your pace a barely-disguised run as you narrowly avoided chattering teens and baby strollers and exasperated parents annoyed at being dragged around in the mid-day fall air on a Saturday before finally you broke free of the food cart crowd and the Ferris Wheel– already brilliantly lit up against the light blue sky– slowly came into view. The Ferris Wheel glowed, your heart glowed, and your pace quickened until you really were running, practically dashing down the path toward where you now knew the ring toss booth stood, toward the still-present memory of a nervous first conversation, a small pink alien plushie, and a very, very cute pink gem girl– 

She wasn’t at the ring toss booth.

The sandy-haired teenage boy who was currently running the ring toss gave you a look of utter bewilderment as he watched you approach in a near sprint of manic happiness, stop short, then stare at him, your eyes widening, before finally turning on your heel and marching pointedly back towards the food stands. You weaved back through the wafting scents of cotton candy and churros, sidestepped the teens and the strollers and the exasperated parents until you’d made your way all the way back to the Tilt-a-Whirl. Your sneakers slowed to a jog, then a walk, then a full stop next to a bench. You sat down.

Spinel wasn’t at Funland.

Based on your conversation with her yesterday, there were really only two places in the park Spinel could be: the ring toss booth and the ticket stand. However, as you’d discovered, both of those locations were decidedly lacking in cute pink gem girls. So. 

It appeared you were at an impasse.

If you were honest, you really hadn’t thought this through. Your initial plan had been to return the ballpoint pen Spinel had let you borrow as a ploy to get to see her again, but you hadn’t anticipated much past that. If you left right away, that ran the risk of her figuring out that you’d only come back to see her, and if you hovered around her booth like a weirdo then she’d  _ definitely  _ figure out that you’d only come back to see her. Although you were moderately certain Spinel had at least a  _ bit _ of a hunch as to what your feelings for her were, you weren’t quite ready to expose the fact that you’d been infatuated with her from afar for over two weeks now. She didn’t need to know that you’d been buying one-day tickets to Funland just for the smallest sliver of a chance at a three-word conversation and a split-second of skin-to-glove contact, and she certainly didn’t need to know that you’d bought  _ another _ one just to give her back a pen.

You tapped the aforementioned pen rhythmically against your leg as you mulled over your predicament. 

Funland didn’t have a particularly wide variety of rides, being a relatively small local park with minimal attendance, especially in the cooler months, and you’d already been on almost all of the ones they did have. You loved  _ Hyper Space  _ and the  _ Thunder Bird  _ and wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to riding them again, but you could definitely cross the House of Mirrors off your list, and honestly just looking in the direction of the Teacups ride made you dizzy. You thought back to the other day and your unfortunate experience with loop-de-loop induced nausea, and cringed a bit. Maybe you should scratch the  _ Thunder Bird  _ out as well. Empty stomach notwithstanding, you weren’t very eager to have a repeat of that. 

So maybe rides weren’t the best idea.

You could, of course, just go home. But that would, of course, mean that you spent even  _ more _ money on a ticket to this stupid, stupid amusement park, only to leave after weirding out a teenager who was just trying to do his job and sitting on a park bench for eight minutes, thinking about the cute pink gem girl you didn’t get to see. 

It hit you in that moment that you really,  _ really  _ wanted to see Spinel.

In retrospect that shouldn’t have come as such a surprise. The entire reason you came back to the park at all was to see her again. And to return the pen, but even that was just a means to that end. And… after you returned the pen, got to see Spinel, and then eventually went back home? What would happen after that?

Even just the hypothetical of an “after that” made your cheeks color. 

After that, you… well. If fate was exceedingly, incredibly, inconceivably kind, then after that, you would take Spinel on a date.

….. Was that too bold? Maybe that was too bold. 

You normally weren’t that bold. In fact you were quite decidedly not bold at all, in any circumstance whatsoever. You’d silently suffered through meals of far too spicy ramen because you’d forgotten to order a drink and were too nervous to wave over your waiter. You were regularly kept awake by the memory of the one time you’d said “you too” in response to a cashier thanking you for shopping at  _ Michael’s _ . Aside from whatever black magic had happened yesterday, your romantic prowess was essentially just avoiding making eye contact with the cute mail carrier who brought you a package the other week and thinking about how nice it would be to hold hands with someone. If there was one thing you were positive about yourself, it’s that you were not, in any capacity, bold.

Aside from yesterday, with the small pink alien plushie. That was bold. _You_ were bold.

You stopped tapping the blue ballpoint pen against your leg. 

What if you were wrong?

Yesterday, you were bold, and what if Spinel didn't like bold? She’d  _ seemed _ to react positively to you giving her your number– but you’d had to fake enthusiasm in that sort of situation before. What if Spinel had only been trying to get you out of the park faster? What if Spinel didn’t even like girls– hell, what if she didn’t even like  _ humans?  _ You’d never seen any of the other gems around town interacting with their non-gem neighbors in a way that could be interpreted as romantic. Sure, you’d seen plenty of humans hanging out with gems, and there was the possibility that perhaps you’d just misinterpreted one of those seemingly platonic relationships, but even then, sexuality was fluid and tricky enough on its own without bringing  _ species  _ into it. What if gems were completely aromantic? What if you’d horribly misconstrued the situation and concocted an imagined softness, a conjured illusion of shyness and rose-colored blush, that hadn’t actually been there at all? What if the world had, in fact, been illuminated by the lowly lit park that had surrounded you, and the colorful fairy lights strung up around the ring toss booth, and the cotton candy-tinted hue cast across the universe by the gently setting sun as it’d faded into the horizon, but more than that, overshadowing all of that, by just how much you were crazy into the Cute Pink Gem Girl, Spinel, and what if– oh horrible, horrible  _ what if–  _ the world had only been glowing in  _ your _ eyes? What if Spinel hadn’t seen it at all? What if she didn’t want to?

What if she didn’t even have a  _ phone? _

It was at this moment that two things happened. 

First, you realized that you were gripping the blue ballpoint pen far too hard, and should probably let up before it exploded all over your jeans. It’s not like you could give Spinel back a broken pen. 

Second, your phone– which had been sitting pretty much forgotten in the pocket of your mustard-colored sweater– buzzed.

You stopped, sniffing a bit and rubbing your eye with the sleeve of your jumper.  _ When… When did I start tearing up...? Good grief _ ,  _ I’m a disaster...  _ Sticking the pen back in your pocket for safe keeping, you straightened up, breathing in slowly in an attempt to quell the panic that had all at once crashed over you. You held your breath for a few seconds and counted the beats in your head, before letting it back out in a gradual rush of air. Then you reached your hand into your pocket and pulled out your phone to check the notification. 

Your eyebrows furrowed as you scanned the screen.  _ 302-265-9193?  _ That wasn’t a number you recognized. You hadn’t signed up for any text alerts recently, everyone you knew was already an established contact in your phone, and you didn’t leave your house enough to have made any new friends. Maybe it was a wrong number? Or worse, a scam of some kind? You probably shouldn’t open it, in case it was something harmful. You moved your thumb across the screen to delete the unread message.

Then you stopped.

_ What if…? _

Oh, man.

It’s not like you were expecting Spinel to text you the moment you left Funland. You’d driven home the previous evening fully understanding and accepting the fact that that would have been far too soon, and you shouldn’t put pressure on your new friend (were you friends? Was it too early to call her a friend? With your intentions being very much not strictly platonic, was “friends” even the right thing to aim for? You decided to over-analyze that later) to immediately launch into open and honest conversation with you. That’s not to say you weren’t hoping she would, or that you hadn’t continuously glanced at your phone for pretty much the entirety of the night. It was merely to say that deep down, you knew you were just... over-excited. 

And maybe a tiny bit desperate.

Before you knew what you were doing, your thumb had gone from hovering over the unread message to opening it. Under your breath, you cursed your hands for their twitchiness– you genuinely hadn’t meant to do that, but now it seemed you had no choice but to see what the unknown number had sent you, and so you tentatively looked down at your phone, hoping to God it wasn’t a picture of a penis.

**From: 302-265-9193 (unknown number)**

** _hejlo_ **

Well, that definitely wasn’t a penis. That was just fairly innocuous and open-ended and misspelled. Your knee bounced up and down slightly as you pondered how to approach this. 

It was probably just a wrong number. You hadn’t gotten many wrong number texts in your life, but it’s not like they were impossible, or even highly rare. You shouldn’t get your hopes up. It would be stupid to get your hopes up.

…… Oh God, your hopes were up.

**From: You**

** _hello? who is this?_ **

You stared hard at the screen, your leg bouncing beginning to increase in speed as you waited, chewing distractedly on your bottom lip. Anxious thoughts began to ping-pong around inside your head. 

_ God, it’s probably not her. Why would it be her? You’re being stupid, (Y/N). Fuck. Fuck. God. This is stupid. This is so stupid. It’s not gonna be her. It’s not gonna be her. It’s not gonna be her. I should just go home. Why am I even still here? I’ve spent so much fucking money at this stupid theme park- Jesus Christ. It’s not gonna be her, (Y/N)! Go home! It’s not gonna be her! _

**From: 302-265-9193 (unknown number)**

** _spinel_ **

** _is thi (y/n)?_ **

** _u gav me ur phon e numer_ **

_ Holy fucking shit it’s her.  _

Your breath left your lungs like your chest had climbed to the roof of a building and then jumped. It was her. It was  _ actually, really, genuinely _ her. Cute Pink Gem Girl Spinel had  _ actually, really, genuinely _ texted you _ . _ Cute Pink Gem Girl Spinel was, currently, in real time,  _ actually, really, genuinely texting you.  _ A wave of warm elation rose up in your throat and you nearly choked on the feeling.

You fought the urge to pinch yourself. 

Your phone buzzed again. You started, blinking violently, and forced your focus back down to the screen.

**From: 302-265-9193 (unknown number)**

** _sory i this not y/n?? im s sorry if it not _ **

** _u can jus inore these txts sorry 2 bother u_ **

“Fuck!” You whispered harshly to yourself, almost dropping your phone. No! She was going to stop texting you! Oh, Jesus, you  _ had _ to make sure she kept texting you–!

**From: You**

** _no no no this is y/n!! it’s me spinel!_ **

** _i’m sorry i was just surprised! but it’s so so good to hear from you!!_ **

Oh, God, that was too many exclamation points. You cringed at yourself, cursing internally.

**From: 302-265-9193 (unknown number)**

** _o good!! goo good i thot i had the wrong numer for aa second!_ **

** _it’s so s god to hear from u too :D_ **

_ Holy cow, she’s cute. Oh my god. Oh my god, she’s so cute, oh my god.  _

You took a breath to collect yourself before responding.

**From: You**

** _haha nope this is my number!_ **

** _so what are you up to today?_ **

Good. Very good. Keep it casual, (Y/N). You couldn’t just come right out the gate asking why she wasn’t at Funland– that would blow your cover completely. Spinel did not need to know that you were so infatuated with her that you came all the way back to Funland just to give her back a  _ pen _ . As long as you just kept your cool, Spinel didn’t have to find out about your blunder.

“Wha– (Y/N)? Is that you?”

You froze. 

Slowly, as though your muscles had melted into clay, you turned around, already knowing who you’d find standing less than three yards away from you.  All at once you took in the messy magenta pigtails, cartoonishly rosy cheeks, and doe-like pink eyes– the same eyes you hadn’t been able to get out of your head for the past twenty-four hours, the same eyes you’d fallen asleep thinking about the previous night, the same eyes that were the whole goddamn reason you’d come back to Funland in the first place. Your heart leapt into your throat.

_ You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,  _ you thought, as Spinel, the Cute Pink Gem Girl herself, gave you the biggest smile you’d ever seen.

“(Y/N), by golly, it  _ is _ you!” Spinel bounced over to you, sticking the pale grey flip phone she was holding into the pocket of her jacket as she went. “I  _ thought _ I noticed ya earlier!”

You stared at her, your own cell phone weighing heavy in your shaking hands, and blinked hard in an effort to clear your head. Your mind raced, your thoughts frantic and flustered. It took conscious effort, but you somehow managed to force your mouth to form some semblance of a response. 

_ Okay. Be normal, (Y/N), be normal. Act  _ ** _normal_ ** _ . _

“Spi– Spinel!” Your voice cracked. You scrambled up from your seat on the bench to greet her. “You’re– you’re here? Here at– at Funland?”

_ Fantastic. I’m gonna die. _

She cocked her head, blinking those large, bubblegum pink eyes at you, and you had to stop yourself from choking.

“Well, yea, heh! I work here, don’t I?”

_ Right. She works here.  _ You barked out a strangled sound that Spinel thankfully interpreted as a laugh.

“Or, well– not today, I don’t. Today’s my day off!” She shrugged jovially. “But this is kinda the only place I hang out, so, eheh… here I am again! But, what are  _ you _ doing here?”

The expression on your face must’ve revealed more of your panic than you’d hoped, because Spinel quickly jumped to wave her hands at you placatingly. 

“Not that yer not allowed to just–! Uh, be here, and stuff! ‘Cause ya totally are! I just, uh– I mean, suppose it’s sorta hypocritical of me to ask what  _ you’re _ doing here when  _ I’m _ here too, so, uh… aha..” Another wave of her hands, this one seemingly to brush the subject aside. She gave you another huge, goofy grin. “Uh, nevermind! It’s just swell to see you again!”

“I-It’s– it’s really nice to see you, too, Spinel,” you said, just barely managing to stop your voice from shaking as your heart did a full on Cirque du Soleil routine in your chest. The conversation dwindled, the silence between the two of you not quite uncomfortable, but not quite comfortable either. Sweating, and in a desperate attempt to seem even  _ kind _ of casual, you stuck your hands into the pockets of your sweater, and your fingers closed around smooth plastic.

_ Oh my god. The fucking pen. _

You didn’t even remember putting it back in your pocket. Your heartbeat thumping, you eagerly withdrew it from your sweater and held it out to Spinel. 

“Oh! Um– I completely forgot, I um, I brought your pen back! I wanted to give it back to you, I– uh, well, I didn’t mean to like, accidentally steal it, aha.. Sorry about that. Here you go!”

“Aw! Gosh!” Spinel’s eyes widened in recognition and she reached out, plucking the pen from your fingers. The split-second contact made the pit of your stomach squirm. “Aren’t you sweet, thank ya kindly, (Y/N)! But, uh–” She scratched the back of her head, a bit sheepishly. “It’s not actually my pen, y’see.”

You blinked. “It’s– huh?”

“Technically, it’s the park’s pen! Or, well, I mean, I guess that would make it Mister Smiley’s, heh. All the game tents are stocked with ‘em! Ya wouldn’t  _ believe _ how many we go through!”

Spinel was still grinning, clearly unfazed at your very obvious blunder, but hot, uncomfortable embarrassment was starting to climb up the back of your neck. Of course it wasn’t  _ her _ pen. Why would it be her pen? You saw her take it out of the ring toss’ counter. You should’ve known it wasn’t her pen, and if you were completely, utterly honest with yourself, deep down, you were pretty sure you  _ had _ known. You were just so desperate for any excuse to see her again. Your eyes dropped down to the ground as humiliation rose inside your chest, your face burning.

“(Y/N)?”

You snapped upright, attempting to shake off your nerves in order to meet Spinel’s gaze. This was no time to self-shame– not when your cute pink gem girl was less than five feet away. You cleared your throat. “Uh– yeah?”

Spinel shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her eyes flitting to and from your face as though she couldn’t handle looking you in the eye for more than a few seconds. Her fingers pulled nervously at one end of a bright pink pigtail. “Er, well, it’s just– this might be a bit bold o’ me, but it’s just that it’s such a perfect opportunity, y’see, and I was thinkin’ that I really wanted to, ya know, spend more time with ya, or somethin, and well– um–”

She scuffed the ground with one foot and glanced up at you through her eyelashes, and the moment your gazes met, your heart nearly stopped inside your chest. The look on her face was unlike anything you’d ever seen. The only thing that even kind of came close was her expression the evening before, right after she’d realized you’d given her your phone number.

“Well, I guess what I’m tryna say is,” said Spinel, her voice shy and delicate and glowing like a firefly. “Would ya wanna, um… spend the rest o’ the day with me, (Y/N)?”

_ ……... Holy fucking shit, did she just ask me out? _

You scrambled to simultaneously smother the quickly rising gay panic in your chest and form a proper response that wouldn’t reveal just how much you were currently self-imploding. 

“Yes!”

_ Oh God. Too much, (Y/N)! Too much! Reel it in, dude! _

“I-I mean, um–” you cleared your throat, feeling your cheeks burn bright with embarrassment, and attempted not to sound too giddy. “Yes, I’d like to. Um– hang out with you, that is. That sounds, um, really great. Y-Yeah.”

_ Smooth. _

Spinel didn’t seem to mind your awkwardness. She beamed, her entire face lighting up like a sunrise. “Really? You’d want to?”

_ God, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes.  _ You nodded, hoping your overwhelming enthusiasm wasn’t too obvious. “Yeah, I– I’d love to! Absolutely!”

“Oh! Oh, wow, um– awesome! Cool!” Spinel bounced up and down a bit on her toes, her pink eyes wide and sparkling, as though she could barely believe her luck. “Okie dokie then! Um, then, um, whaddya wanna do? I know it’s, uh, getting sorta late, eheh.”

You glanced up and noticed with no small amount of surprise that she was right– the afternoon sky had already started to darken, and when you looked around where you’d been sitting, you realized that the crowd you’d been forced to weave through earlier had dissipated considerably. In fact, besides you, Spinel, some early evening park goers, and a few Funland employees just beginning to close up their attractions, there was hardly anyone still in the park at all. Worry rose up in your stomach– if you weren’t quick, you’d barely have any day left to spend with Spinel in the first place. Which was the entire reason you came back to this stupid place.

Then your eyes landed on the Ferris wheel– still glowing brilliantly in the dim light of the slowly setting sun– and you knew exactly what you and your cute pink gem girl should do.

“Do you want to ride the Ferris wheel with me?” 

Spinel blinked at you, your question not quite registering right away, but quickly understanding filled her gaze and her eyes grew wide with excitement. Her face split into that beautiful, ethereal, heart-melting half-moon grin you’d been thinking about all day.

“Absolutely, I do,” she said. She swung her arm up and then down again, dropping low into an exaggerated, cartoonish bow, her voice practically melodious. “Lead the way, (Y/N)!”

And so you did. You walked just slightly ahead of her, the two of you swinging your arms almost in unison, your heart rate spiking every time your hands came close to brushing. She cracked terrible jokes and listed behind-the-scenes tidbits about different attractions and rides as you passed them, and you thought that you could spend an entire evening just listening to her talk, romantic Ferris wheel ride be damned.

As you approached, Spinel waved at the older woman manning the controls, greeting her with a shout and a grin. She opened the door to the  passenger car for you, an action that really shouldn’t have made your heart flutter as much as it did, and then hopped in after you’d taken your seat, giving the Ferris wheel operator an enthusiastic thumbs up. There was a creak and a slight swaying of the compartment, and then the ground began to shrink into the distance as the ride started up, the atmospheric sounds of the park below you slowly fading away until it was just the cotton-candy-tinted sky, and the cute pink gem girl, Spinel, and you.

Silence. And in that silence, you realized something.

You  _ really _ hadn’t thought this through enough.

Spinel smiled at you, warm and friendly and half-moon-esc, and you– well, you didn’t really know what to do, to be frank. You were alone– completely, utterly alone– with the cute pink gem girl you’d had a crush on for almost a month, and you had absolutely no idea what to do about it. Your stomach was doing too many backflips for your brain to work properly. A nervous laugh forced its way out of your mouth in lieu of anything actually coherent to say, loud and on the brink of uncomfortable in the quiet of the evening, and Spinel’s smile turned a little awkward. Not unkind, but… awkward. She scuffed the floor of the passenger car with the tip of her sneaker and cocked her head at you.

“Yer, uh… mighty jumpy around me, huh, pal?”

You bit your tongue to hold back a curse, feeling your cheeks instantly start to burn.  _ Fuck. I thought she hadn’t noticed! Oh, God, of fucking course she noticed, it’s so obvious. I’m so obvious! God fucking– fuck. Fuck! Oh, God, quick, salvage it, salvage it–!  _

“Aha–! Uh, well, I mean, I’m uh– I’m just, generally– um. I didn’t mean to be so– I mean, is it–? Uh, is it bad? Because–! If it is, I’m crazy sorry–”

Spinel cut you off in a rush to reassure you, waving her hands placatingly. “Wha–? No! Nah, not at all, I actually think it’s, heh, pretty cu– er, endearin’! Uh.” Her gaze dropped from your face to your shoes as she attempted to backtrack. “I jus’, uh, y’know... I jus’ wanna make sure ya know that I, um....” 

Spinel’s expression changed. It wasn’t unlike how her face had dropped when you’d stopped holding her hand after first introducing yourselves, but there was something else, just barely visible underneath the surface level crinkle of her brow and the minimizing of her half-moon grin, and you realized with a dull pang in your stomach that you recognized what that something was. It wasn’t just sadness or disappointment. Nor was it just loneliness, or anxiety, or even regret, though you were more than familiar with those emotions too. It was something... angrier. But it wasn’t directed at you, or even the situation surrounding you both– it was directed at herself.

It was shame. 

Spinel didn’t meet your eyes as she finished speaking. Her voice sounded as though it was about to shatter.

“I want ya to know that I would... I would never, ever hurt ya. Y’know? So ya... you don’t have t’ be... afraid. Of me.”

……………  _ What?  _

You blinked at her. Two horribly quiet-filled seconds passed, and then everything she’d just said registered in your mind, and you frantically jumped to your feet in protest.

“I’m not–!”

And then the ground lurched and you pitched forward, having completely forgotten that you were in the moving compartment of an in-motion Ferris Wheel, dozens of feet above the ground.

_ Huh. I see. Y’know, funnily enough, I always kinda figured I’d go out like this, _ you thought.  _ Done in by my own idiocy and blatant disregard for amusement park safety warnings. Figures.  _ Resigned to your fate, you squeezed your eyes shut and waited for the inevitable clang of your skull connecting with steel.

Instead, slim, noodle-like arms wrapped themselves around your midsection, gloved hands latching firmly onto your upper arms, and suddenly the whole world smelled like strawberries.

You opened your eyes. 

You were in Spinel’s lap, practically straddling her, your nose inches away from her chest. You could see the brilliant pink hue of her gem glinting from just below her shirt collar. 

“Holy smokes, pal!” Her voice was panicked. “Why’d you jump up like that?! Geez Louise, (Y/N), ya– ya could’ve seriously gotten hurt, there–!” 

“I’m not afraid of you!”

“Eh?” Spinel blinked, clearly taken aback by your outburst, her surprised expression almost comical. You swallowed, feeling your words begin to clog up your throat.

“I’m not– I’m not afraid of you, I promise, I’m… I’m just nervous.”

There was a pause. You couldn’t read the emotion in Spinel’s eyes as she looked at you. When she spoke again, her voice– though it wavered– betrayed nothing about what she was feeling. “Why would ya be… nervous?”

_ Oh, God.  _

Was this happening? Were you really going to admit it? Out loud? To her  _ face? _

“Because–! Because I, um. Because I– well, I think you’re– I think you’re really… cool.”

She blinked again. Realizing quickly that was most certainly not a thorough enough response, you scrambled to elaborate.

“But not just cool! I– I’ve been watching you for a while– oh, god, that sounds really creepy, I swear it’s not in a creepy way, I promise, I just– I noticed you a few weeks ago and I just thought you were so– so–”

You had to look away from her. You couldn’t say it while meeting her eyes.

“So…. a.. adorable.”

Spinel’s cheeks flared up into a bright magenta hue, her eyes growing cartoonishly large as she gaped at you in bewildered shock. “A-Adorable?! Ya think  _ I’m… _ .? Really?  _ Me?” _

You put your face in your hands and nodded. Now that you’d finally started being really honest, the words wouldn’t stop coming– they spilled out of you like a waterfall. “Yes! I’ve– I’ve had a… I’ve had a gigantic crush on you for ages! But I could never work up the courage to really talk to you, so I– I just kept coming back, just in case I managed to… I don’t know, do  _ something!  _ And then we met at the ring toss booth and I– I– I gave you my… number… and I was– I dunno, I was– well, I was sort of hoping that you’d… maybe want to… to….”

Your voice faded away when you felt fingers curl around your wrists and gently pry your hands away from your reddening face. You looked up, and felt your breath leave you as you met Spinel’s gaze, her face mere inches from your own.

“Want to what, (Y/N)?” she asked, her voice soft and wobbly and so, so gentle. Her eyes were like melting pink sunsets, and the way she was looking at you was reverent, ethereal. As though you’d hung the moon itself. When you spoke again, it was barely above a whisper.

“Maybe… go out with me. Like, um. On a date.”

There was a pause. A very, very long pause. 

And then, like a balloon deflating,

“Ah– ya mean, this, uh…  _ this _ ain’t a.. date?”

Now it was your turn to gape. Your eyes scanned Spinel’s face, now sheepish and quickly turning bright cotton candy pink, trying to comprehend what you’d just heard. “Wait– what?! You thought–” Your cheeks darkened as things started to click. “You– you meant this to be–”

“Kinda! I mean– well–“ Spinel seemed like she was scrambling for an answer. Her eyes flickered nervously between yours and the ground. “Ya gave me yer number yesterday, and then when I asked ya to walk around the park with me, ya suggested the Ferris wheel, which is– I mean, that’s pretty romantic-like, and I jus’– I dunno, I jus’  _ figured  _ that… that you….” 

Her voice dwindled until eventually fading away. Another pause. You stared at her, still entangled in her arms, your heartbeat beating in your ears, the air around you shimmering with something warm and overwhelming and intangible, before all at once the atmosphere broke as you started to laugh.

“Wha– why’re you laughing? Hey, (Y/N)–!”

You couldn’t answer her, too overcome with mirth. Spinel blinked at you, confounded, her lips twitching as she attempted not to smile until finally your cackles seemed to be too contagious for her to resist. 

“Pfft– hey!” She attempted to speak in between giggles, furrowing her brow at you. “Stop– stop laughin’, I’m tryna– we were havin’ a serious conversation, here!” 

“I’m– I’m sorry, I just–” You dipped your head apologetically, burying your face in Spinel’s shoulder in a feeble attempt to hide your grin. “I cannot  _ believe _ that we– that I–” You broke off, cackling even harder.

“(Y/N), I swear– if ya don’t stop laughing, I’m gonna– I’m gonna shut you up myself, y’hear!” 

In theory the words were meant to be a warning, but you could hear the smile in Spinel’s voice as she tried and failed to make herself sound threatening. Drunk on laughter and nerves and the rush of confessing and feeling far, far too confident for the situation you were in, you lifted your head, meeting her eyes with playful defiance. 

“Oh, you are, huh? Do it, then! Go ahead! Shut me up!”

Spinel stared at you, caught off guard, her eyes wide. A split second later, you realized the implications of what you’d just said, and your face flushed with heat.

“Um– oh, god, I’m sorry, um, that was– I was just–”

“Can I?”

Your stomach swooped at the tone of her voice. Spinel was looking at you in a way she hadn’t quite looked at you before. Her gaze was dark, hooded; she looked nervous, anxiously chewing on her bottom lip, but she didn’t look away from you. She met your eyes with an intensity that made a rush of heat travel up and down your spine.

“C-Can you... what?” you asked, your voice trembling with something you could barely describe.

Spinel’s gaze dropped down to your lips. You could feel her breath on your cheek.

“Can I shut you up?”

You didn’t respond. You just leaned forward and kissed her.

You didn’t know how long the kiss lasted. At some point Spinel moved her hands from around your wrists to the back of your neck, tangling her fingers in your hair, and you kind of lost track of time after that. You stayed there, your arms around her waist and your lips against hers, until finally your senses melted away and nothing else in the world existed except for you, and the Ferris wheel, and the cute pink gem girl you were kissing.  _ Your _ cute pink gem girl.

Eventually, the Ferris wheel gently swayed to a stop, and you climbed off of Spinel’s lap in order to properly exit the compartment. The two of you waved goodbye to the older woman operating the ride and made your way back to Funland’s entrance, past the roller coasters and the food stands and that wonderful, wonderful ring toss booth that you would never look at in quite the same way again. Spinel held your hand the entire time, her thumb rubbing gentle circles into your wrist, the warmth of her palm a comforting presence against your own.

When you got to the parking lot, Spinel turned to you, still not letting go of your hand. The setting sun, brilliantly pink and orange on the horizon, tinged the world around you, as though the sky was a melting painting, bleeding ever so slightly into the earth.

“Ya wanna go somewhere with me?” Spinel asked, her voice as beautiful and colorful as the sunset. “Like, a real, official,  _ date _ date, sorta somewhere?”

You took a step forward and rested your forehead against hers. “I’ll go anywhere you want,” you replied, and then paused, thinking for a moment. “Well, as long as it’s not Funland. At this point I’m pretty sick of this stupid park.”

Spinel grinned. “Perfect. ‘Cause I know a place by th’ beach that’s real pretty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW i cannot believe i actually wrote more of this but some of you guys said you wanted it and i am a people pleaser if nothing else so here you go! over a year after the first part but by golly i did it eventually!
> 
> this was just a silly thing at first but spinel really did and still does mean a lot to me, so genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading this. you guys' support means the absolute world and i can't thank you enough for it. i sincerely hope you enjoyed the ending of this dumb little fic <3


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